CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Friday pulled up the district education officer (DEO), Keonjhar, for refusing to sanction maternity leave to a teacher of the Practicing Girls’ high school, a government-aided educational institution at Fakirpur, nearly eight and half years ago.
The bench of Justice Sashikanta Mishra ruled, “Maternity leave cannot be compared or equated with any other leave as it is the inherent right of every woman employee which cannot simply be denied on technical grounds. It would be preposterous to hold otherwise as it would militate against the very process designed by nature”.
“If a woman employee is denied this basic human right it would be an assault on her dignity as an individual and thereby offend her fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article-21 of the Constitution, which has been interpreted to mean life with dignity,” he observed.
Swornalata Dash, assistant teacher (CBZ), applied for maternity leave from June 17, 2013 to December 13, 2013 for her first child. She delivered a female child on August 20, 2013 and thereafter remained on leave till December 13, 2013.
She joined in her duties by submitting joining report and fitness certificate before the headmaster of the school on December 14, 2013, which was accepted. She then applied for sanction of maternity leave for the aforementioned period.But the DEO refused to sanction maternity leave taking the plea that no leave rule is applicable in respect of employees of the school and hence sanction of maternity leave could not be considered.
She filed a petition seeking the high court’s intervention against it on January 12, 2015. In a counter affidavit to it the DEO, Keonjhar, said the Odisha Grant-In-Aid Order, 2013 is silent about the sanction of maternity leave or any kind of leave except casual leave for 15 days under the relevant provisions of Odisha Leave Rules, 1966 and Odisha Service Code.
On the DEO’s refusal order, Justice Mishra held that the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 would be equally applicable to women employees to whom the Act does not apply.
“This Court holds that the refusal by the authorities to sanction maternity leave to the Petitioner (Swornalata Dash) is contrary to law and therefore, cannot be sustained”, Justice Mishra ruled, while directing the DEO to sanction maternity leave as claimed by her within four weeks.